Minor-league coach a hit with the Blue Jays

Minor-league coach a hit with the Toronto Blue Jays

TORONTO — In some respects, Chad Mottola already serves as a second hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays.

First as a roving hitting instructor in the minors, then as the hitting coach at Triple-A Las Vegas, Mottola has worked with many up-and-coming players in the organization, and with some, like Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Lind, who were sent down to recharge their batteries.

Now the Jays are considering whether to bring Mottola aboard as an assistant hitting coach to Dwayne Murphy, assuming that the club brings back Murphy for a fourth season next year.

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For a second straight year, the Blue Jays have brought up Mottola to work with Murphy in September.

He says he is not campaigning for a promotion, beyond simply doing his job. But if the Jays were to make them colleagues for a full season, Mottola believes it would work because of the rapport they have built, going back to 2005 when Mottola played for Toronto’s Triple-A team in Syracuse and Murphy was his hitting coach.

“We know each other really well, from me playing under him to coaching next to him,” Mottola said before Tuesday night’s game against Seattle. “We have formed a relationship over the years where we understand each other, so anytime I get to work with Murph, it appeals to me.”

Murphy has never pulled rank or shown any animosity when jobs have overlapped in spring training or September, Mottola said.

“There are egos in this game, but he doesn’t have one. That’s what makes it work,” Mottola said.

Their backgrounds could hardly be more different. Murphy was a 15th-round draft pick in 1973 who played 12 years in the majors and won six straight Gold Gloves as an Oakland outfielder. Mottola was Cincinnati’s first-round pick in 1992 — fifth overall, one pick ahead of Derek Jeter — but played only 59 games in the big leagues, batting .200.

But as a Triple-A lifer (16 seasons, 249 homers in the minors), Mottola learned a lot about hitting and spent a lot of time offering tips to prospects. When he retired in 2007, the Jays immediately hired him to coach in the minors.

Along the way, he has built a reputation as a coach who clicks quickly with players of various ages and dispositions. Among his projects this year were 22-year-old Anthony Gose and 29-year-old Adam Lind.

Mottola said he always shows deference to Murphy when he comes to spring training or joins the club in September.

“Definitely during the first few days when I come here each year, I just want to make sure I don’t get in the way,” he said. “And then Murph has always allowed me to do whatever I want, which is unbelievable for a coach at this level, to let someone come in and take guys and do whatever I want with them.

“That’s why I have so much respect for him. I’ve never been around anybody else that gives you the freedom to walk in on Day 1 and have him say, ‘Yeah, go ahead. You’re not hurting my feelings,’ or take it personally if a guy comes to me. It’s good that the players know that, and it works out well.”

When manager John Farrell addressed the possibility of two hitting coaches on the weekend in Boston, he said no decision had been made. But it is unlikely he would have even broached the subject unless the club was leaning heavily in that direction.

“We talked about how the structure would work, the fact — if this were to play out — that the people involved have a rapport,” Farrell said. “They have a relationship already from the major-league to the Triple-A staff, spring-training involvement and the familiarity with one another. That’s paramount, because the message can’t be conflicting, and yet everybody has individual strengths.”

The St. Louis Cardinals, Atlanta Braves and San Diego Padres each have two hitting coaches this season. Unofficially over the years, various teams have designated someone with other duties to help out the hitting coach on a regular basis.

Farrell said there is plenty of work to go around. And in a June interview with Scott Walker of cbssports.com, San Diego manager Bud Black made the same point.

“One coach for 13 position players, in the modern era, with cages and video … it’s the most physically demanding job, and the most time-consuming,” Black said. “You’re working, throwing, flipping in the cage with guys … from 1:30 or two in the afternoon, you’re on until game time.

“I see this as a trend because, if you ask most hitting coaches, they’d welcome it.”

Mottola certainly would. And in short stretches, it already seems to have worked for the Blue Jays.